Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Ghetto People

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, although I don't think anyone is clamouring for my writings yet, still, it was a busy day, I was up at 5am and didn't get much time to do any writing and passed out around 11pm. So on with the show...

Today I want to talk about Ghetto people, to use a term much used in North America.

A little background from the UK is needed first. The UK has its class groups as I've mentioned before, the upper class (mostly aristocrats and old money families), the middle class (everyone who has a decent education and a decent job) and the lower/working class (those who had poor or little education and work the most menial jobs). The working class have for the most part become middle class as their skills and ability to excel at the jobs most people can't do e.g. electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, gas working, telephony/cable installs/maintenance.

In the UK the "Ghetto people" have a few names, Neds in Scotland (purportedly it was a police term standing for Non Educated Delinquents), in England and Wales its the Chav and in Ireland its spides or skangers (wikipedia is a wonderful resource, page is here). They are, for the most part, anti-social, disrespectful, uneducated, aggressive and often violent, generally racist, basically the kind of people most would prefer to avoid at all costs. Crime is a constant companion, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs are used frequently if not constantly. Their clothing tends to be a shell suit with added Burberry items and a large amount of gaudy jewellery that only a Magpie would love, a favourite is the Sovereign Ring but any amount of rubbish in various shapes, sizes and names will suffice, so long as its shiny.

There are people of this ilk all over the world and they are the bane of our cultures.

In North America the ghetto person tends to associate themselves with the Rap culture, almost every one I've seen in Canada is of white European descent, has worn some kind of trouser (pants) pulled way down their hips, with a baseball cap or bandanna on their head, a wife beater shirt, or basketball vest (the team doesn't matter really). They generally talk in an inner city American dialect, pimp walk, wear gaudy jewellery, use alcohol, cigarettes and drugs (frequently if not constantly), are anti-social, disrespectful, etc etc. They are the same wherever you go, just the style of dress changes and the levels of violence.

The violence levels change based on the availability of weapons and the strength of the drugs used. In the UK the violence has increased in recent years, the knife is the favoured weapon as fire arms are hard to come by, in the USA pistols are the favourite weapon, in Canada I'm not sure, despite there being many ghetto people, most of them on crack or meth amphetamine, I've not felt worried by their existence. People in Canada, even the lowest dregs of society appear to be more peaceful. Granted on a regular basis (5 to 10 times a day) I hear police vehicles racing across the city for one reason or other, but in the area I live, its not a particular problem.

On a purely London Ontario note, the highest concentration of Ghetto people on a constant basis can be found at the corners of Dundas and Richmond Streets. The center of the downtown area, where the majority of bus routes cross. They are a rag tag motley crew of all forms of humanity, mostly dirty, mostly stoned/drunk, mostly lost in some way or other. Its a real shame as downtown London used to be a beautiful place, but economic factors moved the middle classes out to the malls in the outskirts and skill do. Its not all gloom and doom though, the city council is trying, slowly, to improve things, sure its mostly cosmetic so far, but make the environment nicer and nicer people might start to go there.

We can hope...

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